Lucio Colletti (8 December 1924,

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

– 3 November 2001, Venturina Terme,

Campiglia Marittima Campiglia Marittima is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Livorno in the Italian region Tuscany, located about southwest of Florence and about southeast of Livorno. Its toponym has been attested for the first time in 1004 as ''Campig ...

Province of Livorno The province of Livorno or, traditionally, province of Leghorn ( it, provincia di Livorno) is a province in the Tuscany region of Italy. It includes several islands of the Tuscan Archipelago, including Elba and Capraia. Its capital is the city of ...

) was an Italian

Western Marxist Western Marxism is a current of Marxist theory that arose from Western and Central Europe in the aftermath of the 1917 October Revolution in Russia and the ascent of Leninism. The term denotes a loose collection of theorists who advanced an i ...

philosopher. Colletti started to be known outside Italy because of a long interview that

Marxist historian Marxist historiography, or historical materialist historiography, is an influential school of historiography. The chief tenets of Marxist historiography include the centrality of social class, social relations of production in class-divided so ...

Perry Anderson Francis Rory Peregrine "Perry" Anderson (born 11 September 1938) is a British intellectual, historian and essayist. His work ranges across historical sociology, intellectual history, and cultural analysis. What unites Anderson's work is a preoc ...

published in the ''

New Left Review The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal covering world politics, economy, and culture, which was established in 1960. History Background As part of the British "New Left" a number of new journals emerged to carry commentary on m ...

'' in 1974.

Biography

Colletti studied philosophy at the

Sapienza University of Rome The Sapienza University of Rome ( it, Sapienza – Università di Roma), also called simply Sapienza or the University of Rome, and formally the Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza", is a Public university, public research university l ...

, where he earned a ''

laurea In Italy, the ''laurea'' is the main post-secondary academic degree. The name originally referred literally to the laurel wreath, since ancient times a sign of honor and now worn by Italian students right after their official graduation ceremony ...

'' with a thesis entitled ''La logica di Benedetto Croce'' (''The Logic of

Benedetto Croce Benedetto Croce (; 25 February 1866 – 20 November 1952) was an Italian idealist philosopher, historian, and politician, who wrote on numerous topics, including philosophy, history, historiography and aesthetics. In most regards, Croce was a lib ...

'') and directed by . In 1951, he was inspired by the

philosopher

Galvano Della Volpe Galvano Della Volpe (24 September 1895 – 13 July 1968) was an Italian professor of philosophy and Marxist theorist. Life Born on 24 September 1895 in Imola, in the then province of Bologna, Della Volpe served in the First World War and afterwa ...

. Colletti was well known as a critic of Hegelian idealism and also later became a noted critic of

Marxism Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

. He wrote the foreword for the Italian edition of Alfred Schmidt's ''

The Concept of Nature in Marx ''The Concept of Nature in Marx'' (german: Der Begriff der Natur in der Lehre von Marx) is a 1962 book by the philosopher Alfred Schmidt. First published in English in 1971, it is a classic account of Karl Marx's ideas about nature. Summary T ...

''. Colletti changed his political beliefs very often and abandoned many of his early Marxist beliefs. Colletti joined the

Italian Communist Party The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy. The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). ...

(PCI) in 1949 and emerged as an important cultural party figure. In 1964, Coletti left the PCI because the break with its semi-

Stalinist Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory o ...

past was leading in what he called a "patently rightward direction."Jay, M
''Marxism and Totality: The Adventures of a Concept from Lukács to Habermas''
Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1984: 429. In the 1970s he was among the supporters of Socialist leader

Bettino Craxi Benedetto "Bettino" Craxi ( , , ; 24 February 1934 – 19 January 2000) was an Italian politician, leader of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI) from 1976 to 1993, and the 45th prime minister of Italy from 1983 to 1987. He was the first PSI membe ...

. From 1996 until his death he was elected in the list of

Forza Italia Forza ItaliaThe name is not usually translated into English: ''forza'' is the second-person singular imperative of ''forzare'', in this case translating to "to compel" or "to press", and so means something like "Forward, Italy", "Come on, Ital ...

Silvio Berlusconi Silvio Berlusconi ( ; ; born 29 September 1936) is an Italian media tycoon and politician who served as Prime Minister of Italy in four governments from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006 and 2008 to 2011. He was a member of the Chamber of Deputies ...

right-wing Right-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that view certain social orders and hierarchies as inevitable, natural, normal, or desirable, typically supporting this position on the basis of natural law, economics, authorit ...

political party, in the Italian parliament.

Selected publications

The Manifesto of 101 The Manifesto of the 101 was a document expressing strong dissent from the Soviets, following the Soviet invasion of Hungary in October 1956, signed by 101 prominent Italian communists. History After the Budapest uprising and its ruthless repre ...

* "The Theory of the Crash". ''Telos'', 13 (Fall 1972). New York: Telos Press. * 1972 (1974) ''From Rousseau to Lenin'' * 1973 (1979) ''Marxism and Hegel''

Notes

References

External links

English-language obituary from The Guardian (UK)
1924 births 2001 deaths 20th-century Italian philosophers 21st-century Italian philosophers 20th-century Italian politicians Former Marxists Italian communists Italian Marxists Italian political philosophers Marxist theorists Marxist writers People from the Province of Livorno Forza Italia politicians Deutscher Memorial Prize winners {{italy-philosopher-stub